


Rumors

by aionimica



Category: The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Implied Sexual Content, Multi, Romance, Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-05 21:08:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10317008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aionimica/pseuds/aionimica
Summary: “You’re being obvious today,” Nikolai whispered in her ear. The court was in session, not that it mattered. They were seated on their thrones, far above the ears of anyone who might hear, not that it mattered either. The looks they sent each other were louder than battle cries.“Let them talk, I can look at whoever I like.” Alina glanced at him through the corner of her eye, turning just so with the weight of the crown on her brow. “And I look at you just the same.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> a tumblr prompt <3 enjoy!

There was always talk between them. There was always talk about them. They talked about how she wore her hair, how it coiled stark white on her head, or what scandal she was preparing when they caught her with it loose. They talked about how kind it was for the King to take her, to offer the saint refuge with her crusade complete. Some still called her Sankta, others called her Tsaritsa, most just muttered about the scandalous bitch.

But. If there was one good thing Alina Starkov had taught herself since her wedding was that their words were from jealousy and that jealousy would feed her world until the day she died.

She bathed in it. Every day she woke up and put on their words and put on the show she wanted them to see. That day was no different. Announced with trumpets and heralds calling their names – _His Most Royal Majesty, King Nikolai Lantsov, Major of the Twenty-Second Regiment, Soldier of the King’s Army, Grand Duke of Udova, and Ruler of the Double Eagle Throne and Her Royal Highness, Sankta Alina Lantsov, soldier of the King’s Army, Sun Summoner of the Second Army, Queen of Ravka_ – they took their places on their thrones of gold and glass.

Some noticed the King, his long white gloves covering hands long and thin, his eyes roving over the room, resting on his wife lazily, drinking her in. Others noticed the Queen and they began to talk. Because her eyes watched easily, but they weren’t on her King, no. Her eyes were on him, her captain who never stood just far away.

“You’re being obvious today,” Nikolai whispered in her ear. The court was in session, not that it mattered. They were seated on their thrones, far above the ears of anyone who might hear, not that it mattered either. The looks they sent each other were louder than battle cries.

“Let them talk, I can look at whoever I like.” Alina glanced at him through the corner of her eye, turning just so with the weight of the crown on her brow. “And I look at you just the same.”

“I never said you didn’t.” He chuckled as a few heads turned their way. “You’re certainly giving them a good show.”

“I have to do something to make this day bearable,” she muttered.

“Something?”

“Or someone,” she said with a wink. ”Do you want to give them a list of the possible options?”

“I think they can guess one of them easily enough,” he said, his gaze following hers. Mal stood stoically to the side, rigid in posture, golden armor branded with the double eagle crest. Jaw locked and eyes set, he didn’t seem to notice their attention until a red flush began to creep up his neck. It was not subtle.

“Oh, they’re definitely going to talk about this,” Alina said glancing away with a smile.

Nikolai didn’t. Barely perceptible, Mal nodded and turned to his regiment. It was all he could to pull him back to his court, saints why did he have to be here? “If it was

“We should just get a sign. ‘ _Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain_.’”

“Oh so there is a curtain now?”

Nikolai grinned. “There can be. It’s easy enough to arrange, though figuring out a place to hang it would be the difficulty.”

“And which one you would we put behind first?” she asked lightly.

Someone cleared their throat and Alina looked as her captain knelt before her and kissed her hand. Mal’s eyes twinkled, his lips lingering on her skin for a second too long. “We can take turns, Your Highness.”

Alina’s eyebrow rose in a single graceful act, trained and executed to perfection. A flash of white heat filled her, racing lower and lower. She was not made for this, for the patience of court, of waiting for hours in stays, of watching the two men she loved flirt in front of her, much less the whole world.

Nikolai let his gaze linger between them, roving over their lines and curves, wiping away the trappings of court. Oh for the ease to be able to do the same. Her hands wouldn’t be able to move fast enough to take them all away.  

Alina chuckled. “Or perhaps it’s a group effort. I’m sure something can be arranged to suit everyone.”

“Ever the savior, my love,” Nikolai said. One of the lords cleared this throat, waiting for his cue to begin. Nikolai raised a hand in a lazy wave. Only four more hours of this to endure. He looked at Mal. “What have we done to deserve her?”

In their world behind closed doors, crowns and thrones were thrown on the floor, discarded under gowns and a shared history of war that none of them really wanted. They were all scarred. They were all fighters. They were all together and together they could be each other.

Out here was their game to keep the lines intact. They suffered the lines of court and the divisions between them, because it was the only way to keep them. But for all they cared, they would burn the lines down.

Mal turned and bowed to his king, but for once the grin in his smile was not for her. “Nothing that I know, Your Majesty.”

It peeled apart his layers, smoothing against skin. Phantom kisses and longing tongues scraped across his body. Midnight moans and tangled limbs. His queen looked at him, lips parted, eyes hungering. What feral bonds connected them all. And despite all the regalia he wore, Nikolai felt bare. He blushed for a moment, a single crack in his well worn facade. “Damn.” He swore breathlessly.

Alina smiled, a private turn of her lips, the barest grace coming to her eyes. “Yes?”

“You two will kill me.”

She leaned over and kissed his cheek – her lips leaving a bright red stain on his skin, whispering a parting gasp in his ear – pausing while the court leaned in to watch. “Nonsense.”

Mal grinned once more as he turned to walk away, his last whispers reaching the king’s ear. “Trust from someone who’s been there. It’s much more fun being alive.”

* * *

When the Queen of Ravka stood, excused from the proceedings and her captain followed behind her, they talked. He walked too closely, his hand reaching out to steady her, just barely touching the borders of propriety. They talked when she didn’t reprimand him, some mused about what scandal would come when a child would be born with blue eyes. They just shook their heads (Behind closed doors, Alina drank it in, her skin flushed and hands tangled in the hair of her captain. Still they were just a part, not a whole).

They talked when the King watched them go. They talked about how lonely he must be, his Queen dallying with her captain so blatantly in front of him. (A private smile came to him when he thought about the day that they would talk about his Queen, so lonely, with her king and her captain dallying so blatantly in front of her, holding her lost love in front of her nose).

He could have snorted. What did they know?

Nothing. Let them talk.


End file.
